Blossom Garden Club Visited NC Botanical Garden

The Blossoms Garden Club visited  the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill on Tuesday, April 10, 2012. 

Under the leadership of NCBG Assistant Director for Natural Areas and Conservation Programs, Johnny Randall,

the Blossoms learned about plant pollinators which include not just bees, but moths, dragonflies,

butterflies, beetles, ants,  wasps and flies.  In the bog garden,  Johnny Randall demonstrated how a bee or fly enters a pitcher plant. 

To learn more about plant pollinators,  check out the following:  www.xerces.org and www.pollinator.org. 

Pictured from left to right:  Caelia Bingham, Shelley Dekker, Lynne Alexander, Annabel Garrett, Chris Jewell, Hettie Johnson,

Betsy Norman, Ilene Nelson and Dale Gaddis.  Seated is Johnny Randall.  Photo taken by Blossoms member Cavett French.

Dandelion

Almost everyone recognizes a dandelion (Taraxacum spp.), but not everyone realizes that nearly every part of the plant is edible. The leaves, which are most palatable in spring before the plant flowers, are high in iron, beta-carotene, and potassium. Dandelions are also mildly diuretic.

Read more: http://www.herbcompanion.com/Cooking/Weed-Eater.aspx#ixzz1reCJOR7X
For a delicacy that tastes like mushrooms, collect a colander full of dandelion blossoms, wash them, dust them with flour seasoned with salt and pepper, then pan-fry them in a bit of butter. The blossoms may also be used to make wine.
I like to sauté well-scrubbed dandelion roots in a little toasted sesame oil and tamari sauce. Herbalists have long prescribed dandelion root tea to relieve acne and eczema as well as to enhance liver function.

From this month's Herb Companion

SHITAKE MUSHROOM GROWING WORKSHOP

WHAT: Come to this hands-on workshop to learn how to grow shitake mushrooms.  You can help us prepare 12 logs with mushroom plugs for the Carolina Campus Community Garden.  You can also taste some delicious samples of dishes made with shitake mushrooms.

WHEN: The workshop will be held on Earth Day, April 22nd, Sunday, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

WHERE:  the Carolina Campus Community Garden on Wilson St.

WHO:  Leading the workshop will be Aaron Moody, a geography professor who grows mushrooms on the side.

No prior experience is necessary.  Children are welcome

For more information contact clorch@email.unc.edu

Tom Earnhardt to Speak at North Carolina Botanical Garden’s

Chapel Hill:  Naturalist-writer Tom Earnhardt will present the North Carolina Botanical Garden’s annual Evenly McNeill Sims Lecture on Sunday, April 29 at 2:30 pm.  The presentation --“Wildflowers & Wild Places: Finding Mentors & Muses for the Next Generation”--is free but advance registration is requested: laurende@unc.edu or 919-537-3819.
The Botanical Garden’s annual spring lecture, the Evelyn McNeill Sims Native Plant Lecture, focuses on native plants and their conservation and ecology. The series was initiated in 2000 with a gift from Botanical Garden Foundation Board member Nancy Preston in honor of her mother, Evelyn McNeill Sims of Chapel Hill, on the occasion of her 90th birthday.

Speaker Tom Earnhardt is a frequent visitor in North Carolina homes as writer/host of unc-tv’s “Exploring North Carolina.” A lawyer by training and law professor for two decades, Earnhardt has lived a rich “second life” as a naturalist, writer, and champion of wild places.

“Children learn best before their early teens. In those years it is easier to absorb new languages, ride a bicycle, hold a slippery salamander, and learn to swim,” says Earnhardt. “It is also the time when children are most awed by the natural world. Unfortunately, in our high-speed, digital world, the main contact many children have with the wonders of nature—wildflowers, forests, streams, birds, insects—is via the small flat screens of smart phones and computers. Young adults are far more likely to gravitate to wild places, and become stewards of the natural world, if they were taken outside as youngsters by ‘mentors and muses’.”
The North Carolina Botanical Garden is located off Fordham Boulevard at Old Mason Farm Road in Chapel Hill.  A unit of The University of North Carolina, it has been a leader in native plant conservation and education in the southeastern United States for more than 40 years. The Botanical Garden is open 7 days a week and admission is free. See http://ncbg.unc.edu  for details.